Designing a MegaGame: 6 - The Quest of Champions!

I’ve been thinking a lot about the theme of the game and how important myths and legends are to the popular culture surrounding this particular theme.

I grew up in the 80s watching classics such as Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans and nothing tells the epic stories of legend better (in my humble opinion). It’s a story arch that’s been done a thousand times but the lone hero going on an epic quest, battling terrible monsters after a fabulous treasure is something I’d like to simulate in my game (even if it’s just a taste of it).

Jason and the Argonauts (1963): The Gods watching the mortals as though they’re playing pieces on a game board

From a mechanical standpoint, I also want to give the Gods more reasons to interact with mortals.

Therefore I’m adding another mini-game called “The Quest of Champions!” It’s something that will be trigged by the Gods and they will select a mortal to represent them in the quest. From a thematic perspective, they’ll have to battle animated skeletons, fight against Medusa and sneak past cyclops to get to the Golden Fleece (for example). Obviously it’s not going to be any where near that epic because to do that quest justice, I’d have to design an entire MegaGame around it. So even if it’s just a simple card game, I want the announcement of the quest to be epic and the reward to be really cool. Even if it’s just recognition that you beat all your peers and those of the opposing faction.

For the mechanics, I’m thinking something along the lines of Dead Man’s Draw. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a push your luck card game where you take it in turns drawing from a face-down deck and if you draw the same card twice, you go bust. Each of the cards has a particular power and when the deck runs out you tally up how many points you banked during the course of the game. For my version, I can theme it appropriately and I’m looking to have a special treasure card hidden in the deck and when that’s drawn, the game is over and the player who drew it claims the prize.

I think it should make for a really great moment when all eyes fall on the Gods announcing their champions (anyone from the mortal world for whatever reason the Gods decide). Then there’ll be a short interruption of regular game play while the quest is played, only to resume normal game play immediately following. I have some fears that the game will cause too much of an interruption but that’s going to be super hard to playtest without doing it live and seeing what happens.

Not only am I going to reward the winning mortal, I also want to reward the God “sponsor”, perhaps with extra prestige or power or something.

Anyway, I’m going to throw together some example cards and give it a quick play with my family to see if it works out as I’d intended. We’re all fans of Dead Man’s Draw so it should be an easy sell to help me playtest.